A comment found at A Miracle Drug Cured Ed Levitt of Stage IV Lung Cancer. Then the FDA Withdrew it From the Market:
When I worked in a pharmaceutical co, our division’s flagship drug was a treatment for Hunter Syndrome, which dooms kids to die around the age of 15. Given our treatment, the kids could have a normal life and evade the mental retardation and tissue damage that otherwise doomed them to a painful, short life.
And because my predecessors had fucked up a bunch of paperwork, we could sell it anywhere in the world but not in the U.S.
So if you had the disease in the U.S. you were going to die because god forbid the Batch Records of how the drug was produced for several months hadn’t been properly reviewed by the chain of management.
Because the government is us and we are the government and we care.
Anyone who has seriously followed Drug Prohibition knows government is a hostile force. Why any one would want more of it is beyond me.
Comments
3 responses to “We’re From The Government And…”
Stuff like this hardly ever sees the light of day because if the company goes public about the FDA’s actions here, the FDA will extract payback from the company down the road. If you make the Godfather look bad, you should expect payback of some kind.
The fact of the matter is that for decades now, Congress has systematically shirked its responsibilities in crafting laws and monitoring the bureaucracy. To paraphrase a George Will column from some years back, Congress passes feelings about the issues it addresses then leaves it up to the unaccountable bureaucrats to write the actual rules. Congress likely never passed a law about drug company paperwork foul-ups leading to disallowing the sale of that drug, that rule was likely written by bureaucrats.
The Big Lie (one of many) that is widely accepted by many is that politicians and bureaucrats are public servants. The truth is that they are our masters.
I’m not defending the FDA, but I’d be more impressed if the quoted text had named the drug in question. For a little independent verification of the claim by googling it.
Sadly, I have classical values but the original commenter gives them a bad name by spouting nonsense. I have a child with Hunter Syndrome and I know every company on this earth that does research or has treatments for this disease and his information is false. I’m not here to defend the FDA, as we often fight them to understand our risk tolerance for treatments for our kids, but at least we are credible, which is more than I can say for him.